


The Ordeal

by JuweWright



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Dinner, Christmas Party, F/M, Post-Hogwarts, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-04 09:10:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5328620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuweWright/pseuds/JuweWright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where Hermione needs a date to her parents' Christmas gathering, because they won't stop pestering her about finding a guy. She talks Draco into doing it out of desperation. (prompted by Lexi Atei)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hermione Granger had decided that nothing would spoil her Saturday this time. She had made sure that nobody from work would even think about contacting her, bought enough fruit and cookies to get her through two days, organized her favourite brand of tea and cleaned the house on friday night. After the cleaning, she had had a fit of cheesy pre-christmas-feels because she had switched the radio on whilst cleaning and the spirit had swept right over her on the wings of a song.

When she got up in the morning, it was still dark outside. With a flick of a wand she lighted the candelabra on the kitchen table. Her home had electricity, but she did not like the cold bright light when she was still in that state of sleepy dizziness which she only allowed herself on weekends.

While the coffee was starting to drip into the pot, she opened the fridge and got the milk out. She also got Orion’s cat food and put it in her tray. Orion was a stray that had started coming to her back door from time to time a couple of years ago. She recalled how she had been reluctant to let him in at first. It had only been a few weeks after Crookshanks had been run over by a car and she had been determined not to grow too fond of a pet again to spare her heart from bleeding over its death. But Orion, the lean black tomcat with the weird scar running down its side, had decided that there was no other place for him and so she had finally given in. He still lived like a stray most of the time, but he knew he had a place he could come to, if he was hungry or cold.

She poured the milk over her cereals and into a huge pot of coffee before sitting down. An owl had delivered the Daily Prophet in the early hours and she scanned the front page for any interesting news. There was a huge article about the new teachers at Hogwarts which made her smile. Neville looked so happy standing next to Professor McGonagall. He would be an excellent Herbology teacher. Next to him was Cho Chang. Why exactly anyone – especially the woman herself – thought that she’d be well suited for a position as Charms teacher was beyond Hermione. Her eyes darted further down the page. A lot of Christmas-celebrations were going on. She knew about most of them already. If you were part of the Golden Trio you were invited to pretty much every single social event out there. Harry went to almost all of them. Not, because he liked the spotlight, but because he thought it was rude to decline an invitation. Not a week went by without a picture of Mr and Mrs Potter attending a ball, a gala or some other celebrity thing. Ginny had become quite good at handling these situations. She had grown a lot during and since the war. Even though she would never have admitted it in public, she was the strong one in the relationship. She had been and would always be Harry’s safe haven.

Both Hermione and Ron had never liked attending social gatherings. She usually said she had work to do and she was sorry and made a point to attend one of them every six months or so. Ron had done this as well for a while, but ever since That Incident (capitalized and turned into a thing not only by the twins but also by the newspapers) two years ago, he had never gotten an invitation again. They had not spoken about it afterwards. There was no need to do so, because there was no way to make it better. He had not apologized, because there was absolutely no way an apology would change anything between them. If they ran into each other nowadays, they treated each other with cold politeness.

The telephone rang and Hermione sighed. So she had forgotten something during her preparations. Usually, she pulled the plug out of the socket when she wanted an “alone”-Day. There was only one person who knew that number and used it regularly: Her mother.

“Hello?”

“Hermione, darling. Good to hear your voice. I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

Oh the subtlety…

“No, mum, unless you count breakfast.”

“Oh. So… I was wondering, are you going to be home for Christmas?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. Lucky that Muggles did not use the floo network for quick communication otherwise she’d not have gotten away with this.

“Yes I will, mum. Just as I am home for Christmas every single year.”

Christmas at the Granger’s meant a hoard of relatives gathering for an enormous feast, dancing awkwardly to cheesy Christmas tunes and finally having the yearly major row about some minor topic.

“All right. I was just going through the numbers so we know if there are enough chairs.”

“One chair for me then. I don’t mind sitting on the floor though.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to bring anybody along? How about that nice fellow you work with… what was his name.”

Hermione sighed, remembering the awkward moment when her mum had decided she’d pick her up from the library and treat her to cupcakes in the city. Draco had been very civil about it, but being cross-examined by Mrs Granger was not something anybody took lightly. They had been colleagues for years now and grown accustomed to each other’s presence. In the beginning, Hermione had had her doubts whether she’d ever be able to see past his Death Eater past, but it turned out it didn’t matter much. They shared a deep love for books and could talk about new editions and old gems for hours. They knew how the other liked their coffee and how to make them smile on a rainy day. Harry and Ginny sometimes joked about how they were the most unlikely pair of friends. That was all there was though: They were friends.

Since The Incident, Hermione had been single. She had chosen to stay so although there had been some men who’d shown interest in changing that status. She’d chosen safety and sanity over craziness and pain. But Mrs Granger would never understand this decision nor accept it. She was determined to see her grandchildren play in the front yard and as Hermione was an only child, it was pretty clear to her mum who’d have to provide said offspring. Hermione was tired of it: Tired of explaining things, tired of her mum and dad inviting boring, well-groomed but more or less illiterate strangers to their house to meet her. An idea formed in her head and before she could stop herself, she’d already said it:  
  
“That might actually be an idea, mum. I’ll bring Draco along this year, if you and dad are okay with this.”

Now she’d only have to tell Draco about it and brief him, so he’d survive the ordeal.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“You did WHAT?”

Draco almost dropped the book he was holding: A sign that he’d really been hit hard by the news. Draco Malfoy loved books. If he ever fell down a stair case holding one, he’d probably try to hold it up to keep it from damage instead of stretching out his arms to catch his fall.

Hermione pointed her wand at the huge leather bound volume she had placed behind the shield-charm glass, an invention that had saved both of them from burning their eyebrows off more than once. A little flick of her wrist and the book sprang open, green venom dripping from the pages.

“Tergeo”, she mumbled and the green pool vanished immediately.

“That’s been the fifth book in that collection which had more poison in its ink than you’d need to kill a dragon”, she noted. “I’m curious what seemed so important to the owner that he chose to murder anyone who touched it for more than a minute instead of sharing the knowledge with them.”

“My mum had a few volumes in her collection that could only be touched with gloves”, said Draco. “It was fashionable in the twenties to use poisoned ink. It’s probably got nothing to do with the content.”

He put the book that he was holding on the scales in front of him and wrote down the exact weight.

“So, could we please get back on topic, Granger. You did not just tell me that I have to attend a Muggle Christmas party your mum’s holding, did you? I imagined that, because I did not take enough care when I distilled the fumes from that smoking volume this morning.”

Hermione sighed.

“Please, Draco. You have to save me! If you don’t come along, she’ll invite some other Frank or James round and my mum’s taste in men is … let’s call it bourgeois. They only talk about how much money they make, how much time they spend in the gym and how great they are and they never look me in the eye but stare down my cleavage all the time.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“Does that mean, you’re in?”

“It means I am considering it, but whether I do it or not depends largely on what you offer in return.”

“I’ll get you food from the chippie for a month and not tell you, you’ll die from a stroke or a heart attack because you eat too much fast food ever again.”

Draco seemed to turn this over in his head for a minute, then he nodded.

“Okay. Plus you’ll let me have the first edition of Flimbolt’s Almanach of Blood.”

She stared.

“Draco! That book’s worth millions of galleons! And it’s black listed because there’s so much dark magic in it. I can’t just have you walk out of here with it.”

Draco walked over to her and sat down on the desk next to the purged leather-bound book picking it up with a lazy gesture and flipping through it.

“Well you’ll have to, or you won’t have a companion for your mum’s Christmas ordeal. Come on! You know me, Granger. I am a delusional child grown into a sensible man. I’m not going to practice any of the spells in the Alamanach I am just curious. Just as curious as you are. I’ve seen you read Pippa Portland’s “Pretty Poisoning” last week and the contents of that book are hardly better than the Alamach’s although that woman spends an atrocious amount of pages on how to best prepare an everlasting love potion. By the way, this is a volume about Garden Gnomes. Why on earth would anyone poison a book about Garden Gnomes?”

Hermione snatched the book out of his hand and placed it on the pile they had labelled as “rubbish or boring”.

“Okay, you’ll get the damned Alamanach. But you’re going to organize a copy or a later edition so I can place that on the shelf instead. There were a few people in here since we got it and I remember at least Luna making a remark on it. The girl might be more than slightly weird, but she has the memory of an elephant. She’ll remember it.”

Draco sighed and held out his hand.

“You’ve got yourself a date for your Muggle Christmas party then”, he said in a mocking tone. “Although I fear I might regret this later.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Draco had insisted on picking her up and Hermione had given in. His argument had been that if he was her pretend-boyfriend for the night, he would act like a pretend-boyfriend was supposed to act and be a gentleman.

“Also: Your mum will be asking about how we got here and it’s much more believable if we don’t have to lie about it.”

Hermione had shrugged. She was quite happy that Draco was going to this Christmas dinner with her. It might actually make it bearable for once. They were due at her parents’ place at seven. Draco arrived via the floo network at half past six – his appearance being announced by some green flames in the open fireplace as well as by a very disturbed Orion who ran out of the room as if he was chased by a pair of ghouls.

“Ready, Granger?” he asked in lieu of a greeting, then raised a brow. “Merlin’s pants, Granger!”

Hermione blushed a little, but tried to look as if she wasn’t fazed by his scrutinizing gaze.

“Are you sure that this dress is appropriate for your mum’s Christmas party?” Draco enquired. “I mean, will there be minors present? That cleavage is definitely NC-17 material. And if you wore dresses like that to the last few ordeals you told me about, I think I understand why your dates didn’t focus on your eyes.”

  
Hermione grinned and went to grab her coat.

“We’re going to apparate from around the corner” she explained and took Draco’s arm. “That should be sufficient to have some snow stuck on our lapels, so we can pretend we took the tube.”

She noticed that Draco was wearing a new suit. As she was used to him wearing suits, she had not realized it at first, but the cut was a little different from his usual attire and the fabric was a bit thicker. It also fit like a second skin, so she assumed he had it tailored. Draco Malfoy, still the rich boy. She wondered whether bugging him about it was in order and decided that bugging him about it after the evening was more appropriate.

They walked out onto the street where snow was falling onto the pavement and the trees that lined the alley.

“So, are there any rules?” Draco asked. “Things I should definitely say, things I should definitely not say? Apart from leaving out everything magical, of course.”  
Hermione shrugged. She had not really thought this through and a little wave of panic began to rise at the back of her head.

“Ummm. I don’t know. I think, the “no magical stuff” thing is the most important one.”

"So, what is your pet-name then, Granger? Because if we were a couple, I’d of course call you my dearest Mudblood, but that would not work in Muggle society. Darling?”

She laughed and shook her head.

“My dad calls my mum darling.”

“Okay, honey.”

“That sounds tacky.”

“Bunny?”

“Noooo.”

“Okay, baby.”

“Can you get any cheesier?”

“I am not sure, sugar.”

“We should have talked this through earlier” Hermione cried, exasperated.

This was a terrible idea. How had she even considered this would work? She should have made a plan, a list of things to say, a storyline for what their relationship had been like. Suddenly, Draco stopped in his tracks, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him, making their eyes meet.   
  
“No worries, Bookworm. It’s going to be fine”, he promised and pecked he on the cheek. “We’re going to be the cutest couple your mum ever imagined.”

They apparated into a park close to the tube station and walked over to Hermione’s parents’ house from there. The streets were empty but most windows were lit and the still falling snowflakes looked almost golden in the light. When they reached a very tidy looking house with a very tidy lawn in front of it, Hermione nodded.

“Here we are.”

She inhaled and exhaled slowly.

“I really don’t want to go in there.”

Draco took her hand and squeezed.

"You forgot, you’ve got your dashing young boyfriend with you this time and you’re so in love with him you won’t even notice how every woman in the room starts drooling when they see his Christmas tie.”

He pulled his wand from his inside-pocket, flicked it and smiled, when the sight of his black tie turning into a ridiculously colourful one with snowmen and reindeer on it made Hermione burst into laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing but the storyline. The characters and the world belong to JKR, I just play with them.
> 
> This will be a short christmas fic (2 or 3 chapters). It was prompted on a Dramione FB page.


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